After some time off I have taken up blogging again. This is a first post on creating custom content catalogs in AutoCAD MEP. My thoughts are to expand this topic a little bit to include modifying the catalogs and moving content between them and then finally a large series of posts on creating all kinds of custom content. Additionally, I hope to upload new downloadable...
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Recently a question was asked on the AutoCAD MEP forums about how to put the elevation of a Mass Element in a property set definition when neither the location or the elevation was available as an automatic property. You can view the original post here. Since this was very similar to a post that was covered previously on this blog it was an easy solution. First...
Read MoreIf you are like me then you have spent alot of time setting up your AutoTag settings so that your ductwork is tagged the way that you like it. While not 100% perfect the AutoTag functionality of the EastCoast CAD/CAM addin can save you an incredible amount of time during the documentation process of your design. So what do you do if you want to...
Read MoreNew in Version 6.1 of Fabrication for AutoCAD MEP in the Select a Part dialog box SELECT PART SIZE area, the visibility and order of parameters has been optimized to reduce the need to scroll to the far right to identify differences between fittings. Important information will now list on the first few columns, starting with Part Size Name, Connection Diameters, NamePerMfg, and so on....
Read MoreNew in Fabrication for AutoCAD MEP V6.1 Eastcoast has added a new classification called status. [caption id="attachment_7485" align="alignleft" width="397"] Selecting the Status Classification on a duct object.[/caption] When a new EastCoast duct object is placed into your model this classification will automatically be set by the software to the status defined by your specification. This will allow you to create schedules that can quickly and easily select...
Read MoreI get a lot of questions on schedules and property sets and instead of reinventing the wheel I thought I would point out a set of 4 videos by Jay Ayala of Autodesk. Enjoy. [video link="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfgesH1dJr0&list=PLsTrqxAkk1TWeB9n8iOITvSxfqQCOiqMU&index=1" width="100%" height="350px" type="youtube"] Concepts [video link="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtfalQ62oxI&list=PLsTrqxAkk1TWeB9n8iOITvSxfqQCOiqMU&index=2" width="100%" height="350px" type="youtube"] Property Set Definitions [video link="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqMO47tiH0U&list=PLsTrqxAkk1TWeB9n8iOITvSxfqQCOiqMU&index=3" width="100%" height="350px" type="youtube"] Tags [video link="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h8ziA115XM&list=PLsTrqxAkk1TWeB9n8iOITvSxfqQCOiqMU&index=4" width="100%" height="350px" type="youtube"] Schedules ...
Read MoreThere are two types of parts in an Autocad MEP MvPart Catalog. A block based MvPart and a Parametric MvPart. Block based parts are created from 3D solids or Mass Elements. Additional sizes that are added to the part are done by creating a new block and adding it to the catalog drawing file. Parametric parts are created using dimensions and constraints. All sizes are...
Read MoreIn the last post we looked at how to add an undocumented property to a property set definition. This time lets try to add a formula based location property to a space object using the method from the last post. [frame bgcolor="#DDDDDD" version="light"] RESULT="NA" On Error Resume Next Set AcadApp = GetObject(, "AutoCAD.Application") Set MEPObject = AcadApp.Activedocument.Objectidtoobject("[ObjectID]") RESULT= MEPObject.location [/frame] When this property definition is created and made visible there is no information...
Read MoreIf you heavily use property sets then at one time or another you have found the need to schedule a property that is not readily available via an automatic property definition. For example when creating a pipe system you can assign it a system family (commonly known as group) that will allow different systems of the same family to interconnect. Systems that are not of...
Read MoreIn a heavily populated drawing you can accumulate alot of annotation tags and it can become quite difficult to see what they actually are attached to. You can easily display the link between the tag and the parent object by some simple Display Representation manipulation. Lets get started! First we need to start the display manager by either typing DISPLAYMANAGER at the command line or by...
Read MoreIn our last post we added to the duct elevation tag by creating an option to include or not include the insulation thickness in the elevation value. This time we are going to add a manual property definition that will allow us to add a custom offset to each piece of duct. This time instead of adding an option to include or not include the...
Read MoreIn our last post we looked at creating the actual tag based on property set definitions that we created in the first post of the series. In this post we will be adding the ability for our bottom of duct (BOD) elevation tag to include or not include the insulation thickness in the elevation display. Not only will we modify the elevation but we will...
Read MoreIn our last post we looked at creating the calculations necessary to create a bottom of duct (BOD) elevation tag. In this post we are going to create the actual tag. We will create multiple versions of the tag that has a middle-left insertion point, middle-center insertion point, and a version with a middle-right insertion point. So lets get started. The first thing that we need...
Read MoreFor my first post I thought that I would start a series of posts on how to create tags and more specifically an elevation tag for duct. The criteria for this tag will be that it needs the following abilities: [list style="style6"] Show bottom of duct elevation (BOD) Create the tag using a property set that is automatically attached to duct Show the bottom of duct elevation with or...
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Welcome to “The Contractors Guide to Autocad MEP”, a blog dedicated to contractors working with Autocad MEP and the EastCoast Cad/Cam software plugin. I’ll be using this blog to share information about Autocad MEP and the EastCoast software. You should expect to see tutorials on how to use both pieces of software plus additional tutorials on using other pieces of EastCoast software. A little about myself… I...
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